The Christmas Attic
by Niu Shiy-Ue
Summary: Conrad and Wolfram spend some time reminiscing. Spoilers to Episode 25.


Christmas ficcy (just in time too)

Title: The Christmas Attic

Author: Me (since I can't decide on a pen name and stick with it)

Rating: PG

Characters: Wolfram and Conrad

Genre: Is fluff a category?

Chapter: One-shot

Comments: Conrad and Wolfram spend some time reminiscing. Spoilers up to Episode 25.

The day looked like it was turning out to be a real winner in New Makoku. Everyone had gone all out to bring Yuuri into the spirit of the Winter Festival, and Yuuri had been quite enthusiastic, declaring it a sort of impromptu Christmas. The day had been devoted to fun filled activities, snowball fights and caroling. Right now the everyone was telling stories to each other in the Great Hall, where a sort of Christmas tree had been set up.

(It was really only one of Anissina's strange inventions all decked up. Yuuri had wanted a real tree, but after almost being eaten by a Goala, poisoned by one of the Jelly-Stinger trees which looked like pines and bombarded by shrapnel from a cherry, he had finally agreed that it would be safer all around just to use something inanimate. If Annisina's inventions could be called that.)

Everyone that is, except Conrad. After dinner he had slipped away from the crowd and made his way to one of the inner towers of the castle. The Mazoku may have been embroiled in an on-and-off struggle with humans for the past forty years, the battles had never yet reached New Makoku, so instead of being inhabited, many of the towers guardposts were used as storage rooms. He made his way to an attic on one of the shorter towers then settled in to explore.

He had been there for maybe half an hour and had just found an unfamiliar trunk when he heard someone climb up to join him. "Everyone's looking for you." He looked up and was surprised to see his Wolfram there. If everyone downstairs was searching for him, he expected Gwendal or Yozak or Yuuri to be the first ones to find him. Then again, Wolfram probably knew him best so that may be why he was here first.

"Everyone may be looking for me, but your the one who found me." he said.

Wolfram climbed the rest of the way up and came over to sit beside him. "You've done this every Winter for the past fifteen years. I checked a few of the other towers first, but I knew you'd be in one of them."

"And you didn't feel like sharing this information with the rest of them?"

"If you wanted to make this a group activity you would have told Yuuri. Do you want me to leave?" Conrad was impressed. Wolfram finally seemed to be growing up, not only had he actually come looking for him, but he was actually willing to listen to his opinion and think things through. The soldier wondered if this new maturity was just a natural effect of time, or a by-product of Wolfram's engagement. 'This is a welcome change', he thought, 'but I'll miss the brat. A little.'

"No", he said when he realized Wolfram was staring at him. "I don't mind if it's just you. But haul up the ladder and close the trap door so no one knows that we're here." The blond went over and did so, bringing back the candle with him.

"You shouldn't be so careless. You might have started a fire." The older man smiled.

"Interesting advice, from someone who burned down an entire building the first time he tried to perform a summoning." Wolfram flushed. "That was over eighty years ago! Besides, it's not as if you know how hard it is to control fire elementals!" There was an uncomfortable pause. Conrad's background was still a sore point between the two of them, even if Yuuri, Nicola and Greta were mellowing him out.

"Let's see what's in this one." Conrad said, breaking the silence. They opened the trunk, and the first thing they drew out was a letter.

Dear Julia,

I wish you could you could be here. This is the first year Wolfram's been old enough to understand what's going on and he's overwhelmed by the Winter Festival. I can't decide which he likes more, the clear nights, the snow or the lights Anissina's hung all over the castle.

He and Conrad had their first snowball fight today. Poor little Wolfram, Conrad had bundled him up so tightly and he is so young; his aim was so bad it was a massacre. Fortunately he's so young he didn't mind at all. Conrad still wants to teach him how to throw however; says his brother is going to grow up into a great soldier like him. I'm still uneasy about that, it's bad enough that Gwendal has to grow up so fast, but I don't want that to happen to these two.

Yesterday Gwendal we spent at least an hour outside to look at the stars. I've always liked the night sky, it reminds me of this cave back home. I'm glad Gwendal inherited something from me, otherwise he's almost exactly like his father. Not a bad thing, but he's so serious I'm worried he might work himself to death. Conrad wasn't so happy about being dragged outside for an hour in the cold, but Wolfram was just as enchanted as Gwendal and I about the stars. And then near the end of the hour the aurora appeared, it was so beautiful like a rainbow bridge. The only problem was, it was so bright, it drowned out some of the stars! Well, you can't have everything.

Oh, before I forget, about the lights! Anissina's created this spell, it makes everything look like it's covered in fireflies. I think she was trying to do something else, imitate a comet perhaps? I don't remember, but anyway instead she got these bright little lights all over her laboratory. Fortunately, they don't appear to be able to burn anything, so we didn't have a repeat of the Noodle Incident. Stoffel says their completely useless militarily, but I enjoy them anyway.

How is medical training going? I'm glad you find it so fulfilling; I don't think I have the patience to do what you do. But it seems to suit you perfectly! And how did your 'date' go with that nice Gunter you were writing about in your last letter? Maybe your parents will betroth you to him. If not, I know a nice man here at the palace! True, Adelbert's not the handsomest, but he has a good heart and I'm sure he'll be devoted to whoever he finally marries. Those are the most important qualities in a husband, take it from someone who knows from experience.

I have to cut this letter short, otherwise it won't be in time to leave with the courier. Anyway, in short, we're all well and we all miss you. Come back soon! If you can't, get together with your Gunter to dictate another one to me as soon as possible. Then go after him while you're alone!

Love, Cecelie

P.S. Conrad's sure his brother's going to become a Fire Summoner. Frankly, I think he's going to become a Water Summoner like you.

"I can't believe anyone ever thought I was going to grow up to be a Water Summoner. It seems ridiculous." said Wolfram.

"It seems ridiculous now. When you were young you had a strong affinity for it. But elementals choose on personality, not on what the summoner wants. And you were always very passionate." Conrad tactfully left off the other adjectives associated with that personality; willful, reckless and brash.

"You always knew, didn't you?" The older man didn't know how to respond to that. "Let's take a look at what else is in here." continued Wolfram.

The next thing they found was some sheet music. Wolfram hummed a few lines. "Say this is pretty good. Who wrote it?"

Conrad took it back and looked at it. "I don't recognize the handwriting. I don't know what language this is in either."

"Let's take it with us. Maybe Ulrike will know."

"Maybe . . . " Conrad tried to sing it as best he could, guessing at the pronunciation of some of the words.

"Stop! Stop!" Wolfram's hands were covering his ears. "Three things you cannot do Conrad: tell jokes, cook or sing."

"I'm sorry. Here, do you want to try?"

The blond frowned then opened his mouth.

"In dulci jubilo,

Nun singet und seid froh!

Unsers Herzens Wonne

Leit in praesepio,

Und leuchtet als die Sonne

Matris in gremio,

Alpha es et O, Alpha es et O!

O Jesu parvule

Nach dir ist mir so weh!

Tröst mir mein Gemüte

O puer optime

Durch alle deine Güte

O princeps gloriae.

Trahe me post te, Trahe me post te!

O Patris caritas!

O Nati lenitas!

Wir wären all verloren

Per nostra crimina

So hat er uns erworben

Coelorum gaudia

Eia, wären wir da, Eia, wären wir da!

Ubi sunt gaudia

Nirgend mehr denn da!

Da die Engel singen

Nova cantica,

Und die Schellen klingen

In Regis curia.

Eia, wären wir da, Eia, wären wir da!"

Conrad smiled. Even if he wasn't very good, Wolfram's tenor was excellent, strong and smooth. "You should sing for Yuuri. Mother always said you could charm the Goala from the trees."

Green eyes narrowed and the frown got even deeper. "I don't like singing in front of people." Conrad thought about pointing out that he had no trouble in front of him, but refrained. The day was going so well, he didn't want to ruin it. Instead he simply folded up the old sheets and placed them inside his jacket.

The next thing they found was a real surprise. "This is Gwendal's." said Wolfram.

"Yes, an old writing exercise." They spent a few minutes trying to figure out what it said.

"I give up. What is this about?"

"Err, I think it's about the history of the Winter Festival. At least, I'm sure I caught the word 'winter' in there."

"Geez and he says I have bad handwriting." The old report was placed back in the box. The next thing to come up was also Gwendal's. "What a cute bear!" gushed Wolfram.

"I think this is the first one he made. Funny it looks almost perfect." Brown eyes examined the crocheted animal closely. "Strange to think that after all these years, he got worse with practice instead of better."

"Conrad" Wolfram had been examining a small collar around the bear's neck. "Take a look at this."

My kitty Peizerat

"I take it back. At least his creations now somewhat resemble what their supposed to look like."

"Conrad" the Fire Summoner actually managed to look somewhat thoughtful. "Do you know why Gwendal took up crocheting in the first place?"

"Not really. He's been doing it for as long as I remember. I wonder if . . . "

"Yeah, go on."

"Well, we know Mother isn't the best parent in the world. She loves us and she tries her best, but-"

"But look how we came out. I think I see your point."

"If you were really interested, you could always ask him."

"Are you crazy?" Did Wolfram actually look ashamed of his outburst. Conrad thought he was the perfect example of adolescence; sometimes he reverted to childlike temper tantrums, sometimes you could catch glimpses of the man he could grow up to be. Of course, it might just have been a family thing, certainly neither Cecelie nor Stoffel demonstrated a high level of maturity. "Anyway, I'd be too intimidated to ask."

"Something else to share." Wolfram looked at him quizzically, but the other didn't bother to explain himself. When he saw he wasn't going to get anything more out of Conrad, Wolfram reached in and and started to remove the next item.

"There you both are!" The two brothers jumped and looked round at Anissina. "We gave up looking for the two of you an hour ago. And now I come up to look for something and finally found you!" Brown and green eyes exchanged a glance. They mutually agreed to keep the conversation between themselves.

"We're sorry Anissina. Wolfram and I were just searching for some decorations to put on the, the"

"Steam-Cleaning-Kun!"

"Some decorations for Steam-Cleaning-Kun!" He quickly picked up another box he had found on an earlier trip, filled with various colorful knickknacks.

"Oh good, that's what I was here for. The two of you had better hurry down, there's not a lot of that drink Heika-sama's friend, Murata, made left."

"I'm not so sure I want to drink something called Eggcum." said Wolfram, making a face.

"It's EGGNOG. And it's not that bad, especially after Yozak dumped half a bottle of Othlass into the jug."

"He did? Uh-oh, wasn't Greta drinking some of that?"

"Conrad, if your idiot friend made my daughter drunk I'm going to roast him alive!"

"No, no, this was after she started drinking the hot chocolate. Besides, she's going to sleep now, and she wants you to tuck her in." Anissina's voice got fainter as she climbed down the ladder then left the room.

"We'll be right there." Conrad called after her. For a few minutes the brothers waited as they heard the sharp steps of the red-haired woman fade. "It looks like we've both been missed."

"You more than anyone." Conrad winced. Of all of Wolfram's moods, the rare depressive, self-hating one was the worst. He only hoped it was a phase and would eventually pass away, rather than growing permanent, as their oldest brother's had. "You know that's not true."

"I guess." Conrad and Wolfram carefully maneuvered down the ladder, then closed up the attic they had been in. "Conrad?"

"Yes, Wolfram?" He was nearly knocked off balance when the shorter man hugged him fiercely around the waist. "Happy Solstice Big Brother." Then Wolfram took off, shouting about irresponsible guardians and exactly what he was going to do to them if any harm had come to his adopted daughter.


End file.
